Embrace the Data, Change the World

@kdpaine gets her hands on the book right before #emetrics keynote instagr.am/p/QTTfRJlZjl/
— Beth Kanter (@kanter) October 3, 2012

I’m in Boston with Katie Paine as part of our book tour for “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” where we jointly delivered a keynote at the e-metrics conference yesterday.   The audience consisted of data geeks, data scientists, and analytics professionals! I shared an overview of networks for social change and some of the challenges that nonprofits face in embracing the data.    I told this crowd of data geeks that they should volunteer with nonprofits by signing up for the Analysis Exchange or serve on a nonprofit board – that nonprofits would  welcome their expertise.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of  “data literacy”  lately.  It isn’t just about collecting data or the tools to collect the data – it’s also the sense-making and having it be embedded in the nonprofit’s culture.  I contributed a post to the newly launched “Markets for Good“, an initiative to discover how the social sector can better use and share information to improve outcomes and change lives.    It’s called  “Doing the Math Ourselves” — it is about that nonprofits need to become data-informed – and that also means having a basic level of data literacy (sense-making of data, especially) for all staff as well as working in partnership with measurement experts, “data geeks,” like those I got a chance to speak to at e-metrics.
At e-metrics,   I shared  a story about DoSomething.Org’s recent “Text Pregnancy Campaign” for teens and how they used measurement.   What resonated with the crowd (based on a quick sample of tweets), was the idea of using a failfest to share what didn’t work and look at ways to improve results.

Have a “Fail Fest” to allow employees to discuss their failures and take the stigma out of failure. ~@kanter #eMetrics — John Lovett (@johnlovett) October 2, 2012

[slideshare id=14565554&doc=emetrics-final-deck-beth-10-2-12-121002204759-phpapp02] KD gave an awesome presentation taking us through the “7 Steps of Measurement” that she has adapted for nonprofits. She made one point that resonated with the crowd and I think is even more important for nonprofits:

“Do not measure the world if you do nothave the budget” #emetrics @kdpaine via @kanter — Joselin Mane (@JoselinMane) October 2, 2012

There was some good discussion and questions about how you measure results from social media offline and the reminder that influence can be and should measured offline.

My nonprofit friends at @hubspot show off their copies of the book #netnoninstagr.am/p/QTToUNlZjr/
— Beth Kanter (@kanter) October 3, 2012

Following the e-metrics, Joselin Mane hosted a Boston TweetUp and it was great to reconnect with old friends!
Earlier in the day, I got a chance to visit Hubspot and meet with Brooke Freedman and Brian Halligan, CEO to learn more about Hubspot’s strategy and measurement work with nonprofits.
Today is a full day of book talks ending with a party at the Boston Nonprofit Tech Club.